Ruby and the Blacksmith
by Tao McCawley
Summary: Ruby Rose is not a social girl, despite being the leader of Team RWBY, she is constantly alone with no one to talk to. and then, she met a blacksmith...
1. Chapter 1

Ruby was feeling lonely. It had been a few weeks since herself, Blake, Sun, and Penny had confronted Roman Torchwick at the docks.

Actually, to be accurate, all Ruby did was sit in the sidelines while her friends did the fighting. She was nursing an injury that Torchwick gave her with that Roman Candlestick cane of his. After the fight, Blake became a bit more social. She made up with Weiss and put the whole "White Fang" thing behind them. Blake also got friendly with Sun, a monkey faunus, and by friendly, they started dating. Sometimes Blake would go out with Sun and not come back until late at night, and even so, when night came along, she came in through the room window (because all other entrances were locked) giggling and sometimes purring out of delight.

And then there was Penny, who disappeared after the whole thing. Ruby wondered what had happened to her, she disappeared right after Blake and Weiss had made up. The sad thing was that, although she was awkward, she really treated Ruby as a friend.

Today, Ruby felt especially lonely because on this particular saturday, Blake and Sun were out doing who-knows what. Weiss was in town stocking up on dust. Yang was spending time with her other friends. Jaune was practicing with Pyrrha on the roof, and Ren and Nora were making pancakes, something they always did when they were together. If Ruby were to try to join in with any of them, it would just be awkward.

Ruby wanted what all of them (with the exception of Weiss) had. A really good friend. She had her scythe, which she called her sweetheart. If weapons were people, she would easily be very social among them.

Speaking of weapons, Ruby was getting hers from her locker. She inputted her locker code and found that her crescent Rose was in good condition. She hugged her folded up scythe beloved; her only friend and companion, and cried.

Ruby was a kid, she just wanted to be loved. To see that everyone else around her wasn't lonely, just really hurt her. She wanted to feel, to love, to be loved in return. Her tears dripped silently on her scythe.

Ruby figured the best way to get her mind off of things was to go practice with her scythe for a while, maybe chop up a few trees in anger.

She took her scythe and expanded it to it's full form. A red crescent blade took form, as the tips folded away from the from the shaft of the scythe, which was about a foot taller than Ruby. She sighed as she took her craft and went to the exterior forest. She took out her scroll and logged that she was going into the forest. While awaiting permission and confirmation, she just counted the bullets in her magazine over and over and over again. Twenty-four bullets. She had a spare magazine just in case, but she was just lying down, looking up, letting the sun shine on everything but a sad little rose that was ready to wilt.


	2. Ruby and the Blacksmith: Chapter 2

Ruby eyed the first tree, it was alone, like she was. It was distant from all the others. She looked at her scythe and saw that some of the tears she was crying earlier, still adhered to the blade of the scythe. She despised these tears, as they teased her for being alone. In frustration, she swung her scythe, and in one fell swoop: chopped down the tree just to remove the tears. She went into a frenzy, and chopped down another tree, and another, until she had chopped down nine trees. Ruby was breathing hard, not for being tired, but out of sheer anger. Chopping trees solved nothing, it didn't even take her mind off of it. In a rage she chopped down another tree. Her scythe cut through it like butter. She could not effectively take out her anger on a stationary target that would not fight back. She may as well have been slicing air.

That's when she received a blow on her back by like a battering ram. Ruby fell forward and lost her scythe. Head spinning, she looked up to see a large shadowy creature roaring at her. It had bone armor on its face, joints and back. An Ursa Major, no doubt lured by the noise of trees falling.

Ruby was still pretty angry and discombobulated from the blow. At this point it was one reckless creature versus another. The Ursa charged Ruby and lunged for her, but Ruby somersaulted out of the way toward her scythe. She picked up her scythe and quickly and shot a bullet underneath her. She sprung up toward a tree branch wide enough to stand on and eyed her opponent. The Ursa lunged at the tree trunk, trying to make it fall down. The tree shook and started to lean downward, but Ruby simply jumped to another tree. The branch was considerably lower and it was the perfect opportunity to surprise the Ursa from behind. She shot out of the branch and aimed her scythe for a chink in the armor of the Ursa's back.

But the Ursa turned to meet Ruby, and instead of hitting a chink in the armor, the Ursa's armor took the full force of the scythe. The force of the impact ran throughout the scythe, and the blade of Ruby's sweetheart took all the punishment. The blade shattered into a dozen pieces, the hinges where the blade folded out could not take the stress of the blow and they came undone, the blunt edge got separated from the rest of the blade and the contraption fell out of Ruby's hands yet again. Her weapon had lost its blade. Ruby fell as well, right next to the only usable part of her weapon: The gun.

At this point, Ruby was seeing Red. She grabbed her gun and aimed it at the Ursa. The Ursa charged Ruby. She screamed as she fired three shots into the Ursa's head. Even with bone armor on its face, there was not much the Ursa or anything could do against a high-powered sniper rifle to the face. The Ursa's red mess of a face fell forward, taking the rest of it's body with it. Ruby still fired at the Ursa though. Her anger only subsiding when she ran out of bullets.

Ruby fell to her knees, her adrenaline rush subsided leaving her exhausted. She looked around at the sight. In front of her a dead Ursa, to her side was her empty rifle. Behind the Ursa, was the blade of the scythe, broken and scattered all over the forest floor, to her right were several sniper shells from her rage. She went over to her gun, and picked it up. She cradled in her arms as a mother would a child, and put her cheek to it.

"My sweetheart." she whispered, as she cried over her beloved.


	3. Chapter 3

When Yang came back to their room. She found two things: pieces of her sister's scythe were scattered all over the floor; and she saw her sister in the bathroom wearing a bra and sweatpants looking at her back in the mirror observing how bad her wounds were.

"What happened!" shrieked Yang from the bedroom.

"I was in the woods, and I got attacked by an Ursa."

"Are you all right?"

"I guess."

"Your scythe, oh my gosh Ruby…"

"The gun still works, but the blade isn't fixable." said Ruby. She wasn't crying now, she had spent her tears in the forest. At this point, she was so depressed that she didn't really seem to care anymore.

"How'd the scythe break?"

"Direct hit to Ursa armor."

"What happened to the Ursa?"

"Lots and lots of bullets."

"And your back?" said Yang as she pointed to Ruby's almost completely purple back

"It surprised me from behind."

"Have you been to the infirmary?"

"No, and I don't need to see anybody, all I have is a really big bruise on my back and a sigh broken scythe."

"Im taking you to the infirmary."

"Yang…"

"Ruby…"

"Fine…" said Ruby She was not going to get anywhere with Yang like this. Despite not being around Ruby that much, Yang did genuinely care about her like an older sister should. That is to say… like a mother.

While Ruby quickly put on a shirt, Yang was gathering all the pieces of Crescent Rose.

"What are you doing?" asked Ruby.

'When we get to the infirmary, I want to see what up with your scythe myself. I know you care about this scythe more than anything and you're not the only one who knows a thing about building weapons." said Yang, alluding to the fact that they hailed from Signal Academy, where all students forged their own weapons.

Ruby smiled. "Thanks sis."

When all that was done, they made their way to the infirmary.

The infirmary was nothing special. If anything it was a miniature hospital. The infirmary was a large room strategically placed next to the auditorium in case anyone got hurt or injured while there was a battle. Right to the left of the doors was a front desk. Beyond that was a dozen hospital beds with curtains that encompassed them if a patient was changing. Beyond that, cabinets and cupboards of various medical supplied such as bandages, rubbing alcohol and other battle as well as a small supply of dust used sometimes

Ruby went over to the front desk and rang the service bell. A blue-haired woman with square glasses and a plain white uniform looked up from paperwork. "Can I help you?" she asked.

"Um…" Ruby didn't know how the infirmary worked, she figured it was best to say…

"So… I fought an Ursa today."

"Are you injured?"

"I got a bad back." said Ruby, turning her back to the lady and pulling her shirt up far enough so that she could see the rather large boo-boo.

"Ruby, don't be sarcastic." said Yang as she nudged her. The nurse didn't seem to mind.

"I see, do you have a concussion?"

"Um… I can't say for sure…"

"Follow me." she said as she walked around the counter to the nearest bed. Ruby sat up on it and took off her shirt. Yang closed the curtains.

"You were attacked by an Ursa Major?" she said while examining Ruby's back.

"Looked like one."

"That would explain that." said the nurse alluding to the broken parts in Yang's hands.

"Look at the light." said the Nurse shining a light at Ruby's eyes. Ruby closed her eyes in pain.

"You have a slight concussion and multiple contusions on your back." She proclaimed. "I have to tell Professor Ozpin of this."

"Why?" asked Ruby.

"If a student is injured or attacked by a Grimm, he has to know."

"I see. Thank you."

When all the business with the nurse was said and done, Ruby put on her shirt. Yang piled the pieces onto the bed. Together they started to put all the pieces together. When they had finished, Yang said: "I don't think you can weld it together. The metal was too stressed by the blow."

"So what do you suggest?" said Ruby.

"Replace the blade." said Yang.

"No!" shrieked Ruby.

"Ruby… you're gonna have to."

"No, I dont want to have to lose any part of it! I forged that blade myself, Im not going to replace anything!"

"Ruby? are you there?" said a gentle male voice from the other side of the curtain.

"Who is it?"

"It's Professor Ozpin, may I come in?" Yang opened up the curtain for him. He stepped in, leaning on his walking stick and sipping coffee in his other hand. "Thank you Yang." He turned to Ruby. "I heard you were attacked by an Ursa. Are you all right?"

"You should've seen the other guy." said Ruby jokingly.

"Right now I'm looking at you, and your scythe." said Ozpin as he pointed to the mess on the bed.

"I'll get it fixed." said Ruby as she gave Yang a cold stare.

"Right, I couldn't help but overhear. Have you seen the blacksmith?" asked Ozpin.

"I didn't know we had a blacksmith." said Yang.

"Well in any case, I would go see him about this."

Ruby wasn't sure how to respond to this. Only two people had ever handled her scythe in combat or otherwise: Herself, and her Uncle Crow and Ruby wanted it to stay that way.

"See… the thing is Professor…I..."

"Yes, I get a lot of students from Signal Academy who are very persnickety about who handles their weapons, I can assure you that I would not have appointed him as such if I wasn't sure that he treats weapons with the utmost respect."

"Yeah, but…"

"We'll check it out. Where is he?" said Yang butting in.

"His forge is a separate building that is located on the side facing the Forever Fall."

"I.. okay." said Ruby. Yang could drag Ruby anywhere she had to, Ruby knew this and figured she would just roll with it.

"Good. Now, Nurse Azul has recommended that you stay out of Physical training classes for a while." Ozpin set his coffee down and produced a note from his coat. "Just make sure that your instructor gets this." He handed Ruby the paper which read:_ Ruby Rose is excused from all Physical classes from Monday till Friday. Signed: Prof. Ozpin._ ""Oh, one last thing: if that Ursa is still in the woods, its fur is worth a lot, when you are well, you ought to go get it. Now, if you'll excuse me, us old farts need our sleep." He said wryly. "Good night."

When Ruby and Yang got back to their room it was nighttime. They found Weiss and Blake in the room.

Weiss started: "Hey! Where were you guys?"

"The infirmary, I was attacked by an Ursa earlier today."

"What?"

"Yang, can you tell them? I'm tired." said Ruby as she climbed onto her bed and plopped down immediately from exhaustion.


	4. Chapter 4

Ruby woke up and sat on her bed with her back still feeling like crap. Careful not to wake up the rest of her team, she trudged over to the bathroom and looked at her back: It was less purple, but otherwise, no change. After taking care of her morning routine she wrote a note saying:

I went to the blacksmith's forge - Ruby

Yang would have dragged her there anyways, but she thought it would be best if she went alone, she didn't want Yang speaking on her behalf all the time. This was one time she could stand to be alone. As quietly as possible, she gathered all the parts of her scythe and tiptoed out of her room. As she struggled to shut the door behind her while carrying her broken scythe in both arms, a voice said: "Lemme help you with that." It was Jaune, up and about in his footy pajamas. He went over to the door and shut it.

"What happened to your scythe?" he asked, pointing at the bundle in Ruby's arms.

"Well, I was in the walking in the woods minding my own business..."

"Really?" he said smiling and crossing his arms.

"I was!" she said, smiling in return. "I was walking in the woods and I got attacked by an Ursa Major."

"Wow, and you're not injured?"

"You should've seen the other guy." Jaune laughed at that. "So what are you doing up?" asked Ruby.

"Nora snores, I was sleeping out in the hallway." Jaune pointed to the nearest bench which had a pillow and a blanket on it.

"And you are the only one who is bothered by it?" said Ruby smirking.

"Ren and Pyrrha can fall asleep pretty fast, before Nora can start snoring."

"Oh man, that sucks."

"Not for them. Speaking of which, why are you up this early?"

"Im going to the blacksmith's forge to get my scythe fixed."

"Oh you're off to see Ross?"

"Didn't know his name was Ross."

"Ruby! You know better than to go see someone you don't even know!" said Jaune

sarcastically."Anyways, I should go take a shower before someone else uses all the hot water, tell Ross I said hi."

"Don't take all the hot water from your teammates."

"Will do."

Ruby turned and walked down the hallway, down the stairway, out of the gates of the dorm, and walked the cobblestone pathway till she reached the fountain. Forever fall was to the east of Beacon Academy, meaning it was right behind the academy in the very back. She would have gone through the building's front door and out the back as opposed to walking around the main auditorium, but she had no choice seeing it was too early for the doors to be unlocked. So she went around it following the wall of the building until she finally saw the forge.

It was a rather large cabin with walls of metal sheeting. As Ruby got closer she could see bolts. It had a black chimney made of bricks that was bellowing smoke, meaning that Ross was in the forge. Ruby had encountered her fair share of blacksmiths and knew that they got up early, to heat up their forges and get some work done while they were at it. Ruby's hands were full with her scythe, so she had to kick the door with her feet. This was one of those doors that split into two halves, a top and a bottom. The top section opened up to reveal a kid not much older than Ruby with black curly hair and a black thick metal apron. He wore gloves of the same fashion and goggles that he placed above his eyes for the moment. He was rather tall, perhaps a foot taller than Ruby.

"Can I help you?" he asked with a rather blank expression.

"Are you Ross?" asked Ruby.

"I am, and you?"

"Ruby." From his left, he pulled out a small piece of paper which read "ORDER FORM". He wrote down 'Ruby'

"I take it you need that repaired?" he nodded over to the scythe.

"Yeah…" Ruby held her scythe a little closer. She was hesitant to put her scythe in someone else's hands.

"I get that a lot." said Ross, out of the blue.

"What?" said Ruby

"A lot of students from Signal grow attached to their weapons. You probably designed it yourself, forged it yourself, and wielded it yourself. You don't want to put your craft in someone else's hands because you don't know the outcome and you are afraid that I will screw up."

Faced with the truth, Ruby could only respond with:

"Sounds about right. Not to mention, a lot of the blacksmiths i encounter are rather old, you cant be much older than… what sixteen?"

"Not bad. Guess how many months and I'll throw in a magazine of bullets." Ruby studied him.

"Sixteen years, four months?

"Nope, seven, but I'll throw in the magazine anyways."

Reluctantly, Ruby whispered: "Deal."

"I heard that." said Ross, jokingly.

"I'm suing you if you screw up."

"I'm going to take that seriously." His face changed and became more stern and serious. "Now is there anything in particular you would like?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you don't want the blade replaced, just put back together."

"Yeah…"

"I can do that."

Ruby paused, and hesitated to just take Ross's word for it. Still... he couldn't be all that bad if Ozpin hired him.

Ruby shoved her craft into Ross's hands. "I'll be back at one o' clock, and if she isn't in _pristine_ condition, I'm gonna…!" Ruby paused, looking in her head for a good threat. Finally she yelled: "I'm gonna break your legs!"

And with that Ruby stormed back to her dorm.


	5. Chapter 5

When Ruby got back to her dorm, she found her entire team was going through their morning routines. Yang was in the shower, Weiss was brushing her hair, and Blake was brushing her teeth (in the bedroom, not in the bathroom.)

"Hey team." said Ruby as she walked in.

"Hey." said Blake with a mouth full of toothpaste.

"So how'd your meeting with the Blacksmith go?" asked Weiss. Ruby cringed when she asked this seeing as the last thing she said to him was that she would cripple him for life. She decided to gently change the topic.

"It… went all right. So who wants to make some money?" Blake turned her cat ears in curiousity, Weiss paused for a second before resuming to brush her hair.

"How so?" said Blake.

"That Ursa I killed in the woods the other day might still be there. It was a pretty big Ursa, so I figure it'll take more than one person to move it, I want to bring it here, sell its fur and split the money four ways. Weiss, if you want to, you'll be in charge of finding a buyer."

"Why me?" asked the heiress.

"I would say yes to the first deal I hear. Yang would bully the buyer into paying more, and Blake…"

"...doesn't want to, not to mention people may not want to buy goods from a faunus." said Blake wiggling her cat ears.

"Yeah… that." Ruby turned to Weiss. "So, you up for it?"

"Yeah, you've picked the right person for this." said Weiss, her ego getting a boost from Ruby trusting her with this.

"All right then, we'll go after breakfast if you guys have nothing else to do."

"Im in." said Blake.

"Yeah, I'll go too. I just hope the carcass hasn't rotted." said Weiss. "It'll be harder to sell."

"Hey wassup?" said Yang, coming out of the shower wearing a towel. "Did the smith say he could fix the scythe?"

"Yeah… he did." Ruby cringed with those words. Two thoughts went through her mind as Yang mentioned the Blacksmith. She wondered what he thought about the whole 'break your legs' thing she made.

And she wondered if she was going to break them.

Ruby could see it now. She would go to Ross and demand her scythe. He would refuse to let her in and tell her to wait. Then she would persist and eventually force her way inside. She would look around and find on the workbench, her beloved strewn about, in even worse condition. Ross didn't know what he was doing, he had tried to weld it together but alas, if it tried to cut through anything, it would be ruined. She would then look at the pretender, walk right up to his scrawny excuse for a person, grab him by the curls of his hair and smash his head against the wall. Dragging Ross across the floor, she would fetch his smithing hammer. Then crouch just above his kneecaps, she would look at Ross's face as he realizes how powerless he against raw rage. His face filled with terror, she would raise the hammer making sure he saw what she was about to do, and when he pleads for forgiveness and mercy, she would bring it down on his…

"Hey!" said Yang as she slapped Ruby on the back. "Relax! Ozpin's the one who appointed him, how bad could he be?" Ruby got knocked back to her senses. Of course, even if Ross was a fool, Ozpin certainly wasn't. Ruby would just have to wait and see… just how big of a hammer Ross has in his forge.

"Good point." she said as she had more reassurance that things would turn out alright. "Anyways while you were in the shower…"

"I heard, I'm in, I'm hungry. Let's go eat, I'm starving."

"You wanna get dressed first?" said Blake.

"Course I do, I'm not that hungry!"

* * *

At the breakfast table, team RWBY sat with team JNPR as they always did. Jaune was sleeping, his unconscious head held high in one hand while his other hand had his fork and a plate of untouched bacon and eggs.

"You think we should wake him?" said Blake, sipping her milk.

Nora refilled her coffee mug. "All he needs is some coffee!" she said as she slid her mug over to Jaune. It landed right below his face so that the aroma of the steaming hot coffee reached his nose. Jaune's face twitched, but not much else happened.

"Pyrrha, just nudge him, he won't get mad." said Ren.

"Remember the initiation ceremony? I punched his shoulder out of sport and he fell head over heels!"

"Out of sport?"

"It was the equivalent of a pat on the back! For being named the leader!"

"Uhh... guys" said Ruby, who was sitting across the table from Jaune.

"What is it?" said Pyrrha.

"His head is slipping." As if the words were an incantation, Jaune's hand lost its grip on on its head; and like a man dropping a penny into a glass of water from a twenty story building, Jaune's nose found its way into the mug of steaming hot coffee.

"Uh Oh." said Yang,

For a second, Jaune made no movement, but once his sleeping brain managed to process the fact that his nose was submerged in piping hot coffee, he jumped up, and grabbed at his nose as if there was something he could do about the burning liquid that was in his respiratory system. The pain was quick to subside and as soon as the burning sensation in his nose left him he sat back down, coughing.

Ruby was the first to speak: "I've heard of the phrase 'wake up and smell the coffee', but this is ridiculous!" and she smirked. Jaune, who was a little mad, started to crack a smile and chuckled.

"Thanks Ruby, I needed that." he said cheerily as his face dripped with coffee.

"Silly Jaune!" said Nora giggling. "You drink coffee from your mouth! Not through your nose!"

"Yeah." said Pyrrha, who had grabbed a napkin and wiped the coffee off of Jaune, who didn't even resist. "Silly Jaune." she said, staring into Jaune's sea blue eyes with her emerald ones and they just stayed like that for a second, hypnotized in each others eyes.

Ruby did her best not to stare, for one thing it wasn't polite, another being it just made her feel more aware her own loneliness.

"So Ruby, I hear you were attacked by an Ursa Major?" said Ren.

"Yeah, I was, why do you ask?"

"I heard you broke your scythe in the process."

"I did, it wasn't pretty." she said, worrying about her scythe in the hands of a total stranger.

"How'd it happen?" he asked. Ruby put on a brave face and said:

"Well, as you may or may not know, I like to take enthusiastic walks through the woods."

"And kill giant rampaging monsters?"

"...VERY enthusiastic walks." The whole table burst into laughter, and Jaune and Pyrrha broke from their trance, confused about the laughter that converged around them. Ruby continued the story.

"When I tried to aim for a chink in his armor, the ursa turned and I hit his armor. The blade broke apart, but the gun still worked, and when he charged at me, I fired shot after shot into his head."

"We're going to get its carcass today and sell the fur." said Yang

"You better hurry then, before the carcass spoils."

"Well, I'm finished eating." said Weiss who suddenly picked up her tray, stood up, and swiftly left the cafeteria.

"What's with her?" asked Pyrrha.

"Weiss is in charge of finding a buyer for the Ursa pelt, It's harder to sell it if it's rotted, so I'm assuming she wants to get this taken care of as soon as possible." said Blake.

"If that's the case, she has a point." said Ruby, who wanted to get away from everything that reminded her of being alone. "I'm ready when you guys are."


	6. Chapter 6

About thirty minutes later, team RWBY was assembled outside the forest with their weapons, save for Ruby who instead had a backpack filled with four long ropes, a tarp, and some water in case they got thirsty.

As they walked, no one was really in the mood to talk until Yang said: "Jaune and Pyrrha should just admit that they like each other. I mean they're perfect for each other."

"Oh please, Pyrrha is a seasoned warrior, Jaune is incompetent as a fighter!" said Weiss.

"I dont think you're giving Jaune enough credit, Weiss, I mean you're the one who saw him behead an Ursa Major in the Forever Fall." said Blake.

"Pyrrha was the one who made sure that Jaune's shield would take the Ursa's hit and that why he could even behead it in the first place!"

"That's why they're perfect! for each other! They support each other, not to mention Jaune treats her right." said Yang.

"Do you like Jaune?" asked Ruby.

"No! I mean, My first impression of Jaune was him when he puked on my shoes on the airship coming into Beacon, he hasn't puked on my shoes since, but still… holy crap." She was staring at the fallen trees that just a few meters in front of them. The logs themselves were about three feet tall. "How'd this happen?"

"That would have been me." said Ruby. "I...err… tried to pen off the Ursa to prevent him from getting close to the school by chopping trees and turning them into barricades." Ruby didn't like lying to her teammates, but she didn't want to tell them that she felt lonely so she chopped down some trees out of anger. What would they think?

"Good thinking, but we'll have to drag the Ursa around all these logs." said Blake.

"Well the sooner we find the Ursa, the better." said Weiss. "Where is it Ruby?" Ruby promptly climbed up the nearest log and looked around.

"Right there." And Ruby pointed to an area that was at the group's eleven o' clock. All the team climbed the log to join Ruby and saw the sight.

A gargantuan black mass of fur and bone stood about five meters away from them. The Ursa had not yet rotted, it had only been a day and it had been undisturbed for the most part. It's bone armor had gotten a little yellow with with decay, but the fur was still intact.

"You never said it was this big." said Weiss.

"That's what she said." said Yang, smirking.

"Yang!" said Ruby, who struggled to hold back a laugh. Even Blake couldn't help but smile at the joke.

"Let's get this over with." said Weiss, who was trying her best to ignore the joke.

As they approached the Ursa, Ruby pulled out the tarp from her backpack. As a team, they managed to shove the carcass onto the tarp. It wasn't easy, they couldn't roll the body over to the tarp because the bone spike protruding out of the back, so Weiss had use her glyphs to lift one end of the Ursa while the rest of the team put the tarp under it. Weiss would have used her glyphs to bring the Ursa back the whole way back, but stamina wasn't Weiss's strong suit. At most, she could hold a glyph in place for, at most, ten seconds at a time. Once they got they got the Ursa on the tarp, they tied the four ropes to four eyelets that were on the same side of the tarp. After a five minute water break, they each grabbed a rope, slung it over their shoulders and heaved. It wasn't terribly hard to pull, the fact that they were splitting the load helped a lot, as well as the tarp's reduced friction. They may as well have been hiking.

"So what's the blacksmith like?" asked Weiss as she pulled her rope.

"Well, he's actually pretty young."

"Like in his twenties?" asked Yang.

"No, he's a year older than me."

"Seriously?" asked Weiss. "How many underage people are at this school?"

"Well, as I recall, I think two years ago, the head blacksmith at Beacon retired so they needed someone to fill the spot." said Blake. "I didn't realize that Ozpin would hire someone so young."

"I think labor laws prevent children from working unless they are receiving a formal education. Maybe he's a student as well." said Ruby.

"Is he cute?" asked Yang.

"Oh come on!" said Ruby. "The first thing you ask if I meet a boy is if he's cute!"

"Well? Is he? Tell me what he looks like!"

"Um… lemme think. He's about a foot taller than me, he's got black curly hair. He's buff, but all blacksmiths are strong, its a side effect of their work. His face, it;s a bit dirty, but I caught him while he was working, of course his face would be dirty."

"Wait a minute, you caught him working in the morning, on a Sunday, before anyone else was awake?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing, it's just, well, he sounds like the guy my father would hire. From a business standpoint, Ozpin chose well."

"Well, he did strike me as a hard worker…"

"Is he _handsome_?" teased Yang. Ruby knew she would ask so she gave Yang's teasing question with a teasing answer.

"Meh, he's alright. Oh look! We're here!" Before them laid Beacon academy in all it's glory. They stopped pulling the load and felt a slight relief.

"Wait… now what?" said Weiss. "We've got the Ursa here, what do we do now?"

"I asked for a favor from Professor Port." said Ruby. "He knows how to skin an Ursa. He should be meeting us here in a couple of minutes." she said, looking at her watch. It was almost ten-thirty in the morning.

"Hello there children!" Professor Port made himself visible from the courtyard just to the left of the group. He approached the group with a duffel bag.

"Hey Professor." said Blake. "Here's the ursa Ruby mentioned to you."

Port's eyes widened. "You never mentioned the beast was this big!" he said.

Yang started to whisper: "That's what she…"

"NO!" said Ruby, loudly under her breath.

"Very well then Ms. Rose, would you like the head of the beast so you can mount it on your wall?" he said,

"Actually… yeah but I'd rather you made it so I could wear it as a mask."

"Very well, and our deal remains the same?"

"Yes."

"Very well then. It's best if I skin it outside so as not to make a mess indoors. I'll need at least two assistants to help skin it."

"I don't mind." said Weiss.

"I have an errand I need to run.. so…yeah." said Yang. Ruby knew what Yang was really thinking. She had gotten uncomfortable with Port's flirting, whether he was just messing around or not, it was too creepy for Yang to deal with. Port hadn't done anything criminal or even remotely harassing, he just made Yang feel uncomfortable.

"I'm free for the next couple of hours anyways." said Blake.

"Then that's settled." Said Ruby, she turned to Professor Port and said: "Once the pelt's been sold you'll get the ten percent we agreed on."

"Wait what?" said Weiss with a look of confusion.

"I offered Professor Port ten percent from my cut of the money to skin the Ursa. Everyone else gets their twenty-five percent, Professor Port gets ten percent, I get fifteen percent." she said.

"Are you sure Ruby?" asked Yang.

"Yeah, besides, I've already made the deal. Weiss, if you are going to ask why I didnt ask you…"

"No, it was a good move, You got the fur skinned by a professional. Besides, it's none of my business how you spend your cut of the money." said Weiss, a bit relieved. Blake rolled her eyes as if to say: '_Okay, whatever'_.

"All right then. I should go to the blacksmith's place then, see how the repairs are going." said Ruby who turned and left in the direction of the forge.

"I'll go with you." said Yang, who went in the direction of her sister.

"You just want to see if he's cute!"

" Actually, I want him to check out my gauntlets."


End file.
